"Kill!"
Chu Bai’s figure vanished in an instant.
The next moment, in the canyon filled with gray smoke and despair, a stream of faint gold light slammed ferociously into the massive, pitch-black phantom.
Jin Changyu, intimidated by this display of power, let out a roar. He thrust his long halberd forward, his body transforming into a wisp of green smoke as he intercepted the Shadow Beast on the left.
Lin Xuewei and Dong Feng exchanged a look. Not daring to delay, they frantically swallowed Pills and desperately circulated their Cultivation Techniques.
The two men at the front were risking their lives to buy time, all so the others could recover their strength.
Besides... buying a quarter of an hour was easier said than done.
The sound of violently clashing Spiritual Power resounded through the clouds.
Under the hammer of the Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast—a blow powerful enough to shatter mountains—Chu Bai’s figure was like a lone boat sailing against a raging tide.
The situation remained perilous, but at this moment, the group had reached a consensus.
The air in the canyon had been completely drained by the gray Evil Qi and fire poison, and every breath was accompanied by a searing pain in the lungs.
Chu Bai, draped in the faint, golden-glowing Golden Scale Armor, formed a hand seal across his chest with his right arm. He stood like a nail, firmly planted in the narrow path before the massive rock.
ROAR—!
The Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast let out an inhuman roar. Its thirty-foot body, formed from condensed black smoke, suddenly swelled. It raised the Evil Qi Heavy Hammer high in its hands, stirring up a suffocating gale as it smashed it down viciously toward Chu Bai’s head.
This single strike was enough to pulverize a boulder weighing thousands of pounds.
"Watch out!" Lin Xuewei couldn’t help but cry out in alarm.
Chu Bai’s expression was grim, his combat instincts honed to their absolute peak.
In his vision, the trajectory of the world-destroying hammer became clear and slow; the ebb and flow of every surge of Spiritual Power was traceable.
He didn’t choose to meet it head-on. Instead, the instant the hammer was about to hit the ground, he shifted his footing.
[Formless Cloud Hand]—Part the Clouds to See the Sun!
Chu Bai’s left hand became a supple afterimage, lightly tapping the side of the hammer.
The tap seemed feather-light and devoid of force, yet it landed precisely on the fulcrum where the power of the Evil Qi Heavy Hammer converged.
The hammer scraped past Chu Bai’s shoulder and slammed into the ground. BOOM! The black rock cracked like a spiderweb, sending shards of stone flying.
Although he had dodged the direct hit, the terrifying shockwave still swept toward him like a raging tide. Just then, the Golden Scale Armor on Chu Bai’s body suddenly erupted with a brilliant light.
In Dong Feng’s hands, this Treasure Armor required specific Gold Spiritual Power to unleash its full potential and was extremely draining on one’s Spiritual Qi.
But under the infusion of Chu Bai’s Spiritual Power, the glowing patterns on the Treasure Armor’s surface transformed into a thick, Dark Gold barrier.
The shockwave crashed against the barrier, producing a dull clang like a great Bell. Chu Bai’s body only swayed three times before he stood his ground, as steady as a mountain.
"Th-this... how is this possible?" Dong Feng was dumbfounded. "How can he activate the Golden Scale Armor to this extent? His Spiritual Power shouldn’t be as compatible as mine..."
However, the battle had only just begun.
Seeing its companion’s attack miss, the other Qi Cultivation Second Layer Shadow Beast roared and pounced from the flank. Its pitch-black claws, wreathed in chilling gray Shadow Fire, aimed straight for Chu Bai’s side.
Chu Bai snorted, his focus splitting in two.
His left hand maintained its Spiritual Power output, controlling the [Guardian Shield] to firmly block the attack from the left, while the sword-fingers of his right hand had already jabbed three times to the side.
Three streaks of blue light shot out like lightning, not to kill, but to precisely pierce the gaps in the flanking Shadow Beast’s shoulder blades.
Spiral Force frantically tore at its black smoke body. The Shadow Beast shrieked in pain, its assault faltering for an instant.
Chu Bai was like a precision machine weaving through the shadows. He moved between the two powerful monsters, his actions pared down to the extreme, with absolutely no wasted energy.
This ability to withstand such intense pressure sent a chill down the spines of the three watching from behind.
Jin Changyu, who was holding off the third Shadow Beast on the other side, spared a glance back and felt his scalp tingle.
He prided himself on having the fastest speed among his peers, but Chu Bai’s composure—strolling on a blade’s edge, dancing under a hammer—had completely surpassed the level of a new student.
"This fighting style... Doesn’t he ever get tired?"
Lin Xuewei was utterly shaken.
She saw that Chu Bai’s every spell, every movement, was terrifyingly precise.
And that unyielding, murderous will to survive in a Death Land sent a tremor through the very soul of a sheltered, prodigal daughter like her.
Chu Bai was indeed not having an easy time. Even with the Golden Scale Armor’s protection, the spreading fire poison made his meridians throb with pain.
But the blood-red Evil Qi in his eyes grew ever brighter.
’Wait for the two people behind me to return to their peak strength.’
’Until then, even if the sky itself falls, I, Chu Bai, will hold it up with my spine!’
"One hundred breaths."
"I haven’t fully recovered, but it should be enough to help..."
Lin Xuewei stood up, the frigid air around her so thick it nearly solidified. An intense, ice-blue light flared in her eyes.
With a series of flicks from her delicate hand, dozens of massive, three-foot-long Water Arrows instantly condensed in the air.
"Chu Bai, move!"
Chu Bai understood instantly, his figure flitting backward like a phantom.
"Go!"
The dozens of Water Arrows formed a single line, carrying a bone-chilling cold as they unerringly slammed into the chest of the Qi Cultivation Second Layer Shadow Beast on the left.
When the raging Shadow Fire encountered this pure, frigid qi, it let out a harsh SIZZLE. Large swaths of black smoke were forcibly frozen, and the Shadow Beast’s movements became incredibly sluggish.
Chu Bai seized the opening, quickly activating his Spirit Water Needle to land another blow.
The first Qi Cultivation Second Layer Shadow Beast completely disintegrated.
"Nice one!" Jin Changyu let out an excited roar. His long halberd became a storm of afterimages as he desperately entangled the remaining Qi Cultivation Second Layer Shadow Beast, preventing it from getting near Chu Bai.
On the battlefield, only the most terrifying leader remained—the Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast.
It also seemed to sense the encroaching crisis, and a bizarre, dark red light began to show in its originally gray eyes.
It abandoned its hammer and brought its hands together. The Power of Smoke Evil around its body converged madly into its palms, and a black Fireball exuding an aura of annihilation began to rapidly take shape.
"It’s charging up a killing blow! We can’t let it release it!" Lin Xuewei cried out. Her Spiritual Power was empty, and she could only watch helplessly.
"I’ll do it!"
Chu Bai’s gaze was ice-cold to the extreme.
Not only did he not retreat, but he also ripped off the Golden Scale Armor, which was now covered in cracks.
Chu Bai mobilized all the Spiritual Power in his body, sending it surging wildly along the pathways of the Guiyuan Technique.
In an instant, he felt his combat intuition rise to its peak as the battle consciousness granted by his Fate Chart erupted forth.
This time, he once again summoned a hundred Spirit Water Needles—the current limit of what he could call forth at once.
But this level of power wasn’t enough to inflict significant damage on a Shadow Beast a whole realm higher than him.
’What if I merge them...’
A hundred Water Needles were forcibly twisted and merged into one, and then another hundred took shape.
After several more rounds of merging, Chu Bai felt his Spiritual Power was nearly depleted.
The Shadow Beast leader let out a desperate roar and hurled the still-forming black Fireball at Chu Bai.
"Break!"
Chu Bai bellowed in mid-air. The [Formless Cloud Hand] created a tiny, rotating force field around him, which unexpectedly diverted the oncoming fiery shockwave to the sides.
The pitch-black Spiritual Power Long Spear sliced through the black Fireball like a hot knife through butter. Then, with its momentum unchecked, it brutally pierced through the Shadow Beast leader’s body as it watched in shock.
BOOM—!
A violent explosion echoed through the great canyon, the furious shockwave clearing the gray mist in a radius of several hundred yards.
The dust settled.
The three despair-inducing Shadow Beasts had vanished completely, dissolving into a sky full of scattered Spiritual Power fragments.
"Hah... hah..."
Jin Changyu collapsed to the ground, his long halberd clattering beside him. He looked as if he’d been fished out of water. Lin Xuewei and Dong Feng also slumped down, all appearances forgotten, gasping for the slightly fresher air.
Chu Bai stood proudly in the center of the battlefield, leaning on his Iron Sword, its blade now heavily chipped.
Although the Teleportation Array still showed no sign of activating, and although they were still trapped in a Death Land, the gazes of the other three no longer held their previous competitiveness or hostility. There was only profound admiration.
"Chu Bai..." Dong Feng wiped the blood from his face and gave a wry smile. "Once we get out of here, I’ll compete with you for first place again."
Chu Bai didn’t speak. He simply lowered his head and looked at the Lingxi Mark on his brow.
A line of clear, golden text appeared in his Sea of Consciousness:
[Current Total Points: 4830!]
[Current Ranking: First Place!]
Chu Bai froze, momentarily speechless.
He then recalled the recent issue with the Law Net’s fluctuations. The area covered by the Law Net was supposed to be under complete control; even the slightest, most insignificant error would be reported and resolved.
For such a huge loophole to appear now was rather strange.
The Mark on his brow was clearly still working, as the point rankings remained in his Sea of Consciousness. This was quite unexpected.
’Did the Mark return to normal? Or...’
’Was it never actually broken?’

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